Video of the Day: Promoting Games with Hot Peppers

<p>After watching this extremely hot video, you may just want to go buy a copy of <em>Age of Empires II HD</em> yourself.</p>

Some people will do anything to sell a copy of their game.

One of my favorite real-time strategy game series from the days of old is the Age of Empire series, the first of which came onto the online gaming scene back in the late 1990s. Its subsequent sequel, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, followed in 1999 and was a game that I and several friends regularly played on the MSN Gaming Zone, an online service operated by Microsoft. The sequel came with a flexible set of tools for players to craft their own custom games and map variations, leading to some classic player-made games such as Archers Blood, Hitman, and several others.

Those days are long past, but when Hidden Path Entertainment launched the Age of Empires II HD Edition on Steam along with its first new expansion in over a decade, it was something that I was drawn to purchase just for the sake of my own nostalgia. However, new players that arent familiar with the fun times that this game once provided in the past need their own reasons to buy the classic RTS game, and thats where marketing and promotion comes in.

But some devs dont have huge marketing budgets, so they have to get the attention of players in other ways by using a bit of creativity and social media. In this case, that involves filming a video, a powerful burning sensation, lots of uncomfortable squirming, a swear counter, and immediate regret from Kiefer Bryant, the sacrificial Age of Empires II HD community manager, that was sent in to make the painful pitch.

On a positive note, poor Kiefer may have just made one of the best promotional videos ever seen at his own physical expense. Its just too bad that you probably wont notice the gameplay in the screen behind him.

Did you play Age of Empires II back when it first released? If so, what was your favorite custom game? You can check out the game for yourself on Steam.

If you've got a video you'd love to see featured as our Video of the Day, drop me a link at martuk[AT]tentonhammer.com. You can also tweet me @TTHTuk on Twitter.

About The Author

Stacy "Martuk" Jones was a long-time news editor and community manager for many of our previous game sites, such as Age of Conan. Stacy has since moved on to become a masked super hero, battling demons in another dimension.